If there's anything that suits the 'big bad' label, it's got to be a raging bison on the charge. At least, in the mind, it is. Having never seen one in real life on the American plains, who knows? In pictures, the giant creatures seem pretty placid, happily grazing and chilling with their buffalo buds. But, 'Rather Large Placid Bison' just doesn't have the same ring to it as Big Bad Bison, which is the name of an online slot from Australian software designer Big Time Gaming. If anyone is going to coax a bit of badness out of a herd of bison, it's the Aussie powerhouse; why don't we see how the game fares.
Pick the bison topic for a slot, and you're sort of locked into how it's going to look. For starters, a North American vista is a must, which Big Bad Bison serves up in the form of an imposing rocky wall face, and well, that's about it. Not the most inspiring view a buffalo slot has ever possessed, though floating birds and their haunting cries add to the atmosphere. The same view appears in free spins, too, except the bonus round takes place at night time, where a sky full of stars makes its way slowly across the upper portion of the screen. Whereas light pollution has diluted the astonishing richness of the night sky in built-up areas, it must be quite a sight out in the middle of a desert or prairie without a hint of artificial light for miles and miles and miles. Just you and the cosmos…
And back to Big Bad Bison, which is powered by a highly volatile math model, generating a return to player of 96.58% to 96.59%, depending on how you play the game. Whatever the approach, players pick a base bet from 20 p/c and can then buy the free spins round for 50 times the stake or activate the Win Exchange when a certain prize value has been won. Played on a 6-reel gaming grid, each reel may land anywhere from 2 to 7 symbols, providing up to 117,649 ways to win.
Big Bad Bison has 10 regular pay symbols, a wild and a scatter. Its pay symbols include 9 to A low pay card ranks done in a classic BTG style worth 0.7x-0.8x for a 6oak combo, as well as a high pay deer, wolf, eagle, and bison worth 1.5x to 25x for 60ak. Wild symbols not only help connect wins by substituting for any regular pay symbol, but they can also land with multipliers of up to x5 attached, increasing the number of Megaways.
Joining the wild multiplier are further extras such as free spins with rising minimum ways to win, and the Win Exchange.
Free Spins
Landing at least 3 scatter symbols in the base game awards players with 12 free spins. One of the things you want to happen in the bonus round is land 2 or more scatter symbols to retrigger free spins. Not only does this award an additional 4 free spins, but the minimum number of ways to win increases. It starts with the standard 64 ways; then the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth retriggers boost the minimum number of ways to 729, 4,096, 15,625, 46,656, and then the ultimate, 117,649 ways on each free spin from then on out.
Win Exchange
When a win worth between 25 to 50 times the stake occurs, players have the chance of exchanging the whole amount for the chance to win 12 free spins. If accepted, the Win Exchange spins a red and green segmented wheel. Landing on the green segment awards 12 free spins, landing on red results in 0 free spins.
Big Bad Bison: Slot Verdict
After mentally stampeding around the plains with the buffalos for a bit, the positive and the not-so-positive things about Big Bad Bison become more apparent. On the bright side, Big Bad Bison is about as rock solid a bison slot as you could hope for. Well, the background imagery isn't the most inspiring representation of mother nature that we've seen in one of these games. It's pretty much just a rock face, though the stars in free spins got a few free-form thoughts churning through. As you'd expect from a Big Time Gaming slot, Big Bad Bison's stats are as steady as a couple of high school sweethearts. From the RTP values to a base game max win of 30,395 times the bet, rising to a bonus round max win of 67,640x, numerically speaking, Big Bad Bison doesn't let gamblers down.
The features aren't bad either, though there are few of them. Wild multipliers on a setup like Megaways can go down a treat, and having the rising minimum number of ways in free spins worked well in a game like Morgana Megaways, so there's no reason they won't do here, too. So everything works just fine, and the numbers are impeccable. And yet, Big Bad Bison just came across as somewhat underwhelming for a Big Time Gaming release. Nothing wrong with the theme, but it is an unusually common one, and its use was a bit thin, especially when you consider the creativity that BTG is known for pouring forth.
To sum up, there's not really much more to add which hasn't been mentioned above. Big Bad Bison, on the whole, gives players who lean towards North American/buffalo-themed slots a nicely constructed alternative to put through its paces. While certainly a finely tuned gambling machine and all, Big Bad Bison falls short of being one of those monumental Big Time Gaming slots that makes you sit up and say 'wo'.
